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Do We Think of UFOs as Crafts [sic] or Beings, and Why Does It Matter?
Psychology Today ^ | July 11, 2026 | Liz Stillwaggon Swan PhD | Reviewed by Margaret Foley

Posted on 07/14/2026 8:19:58 AM PDT by BenLurkin

There is a pretty pervasive and consistent assumption in our long history of UFO sightings: that the unidentified objects some of us see in the night sky are vehicles or crafts inside of which are what we're really interested in—the aliens themselves. But what if this assumption is mistaken? What if the craft or vehicle itself is what's alien?

UFOs are like mirrors for human nature

The long history of UFO sightings in the world, taken as a whole, can act as a reflecting pool for our often subconscious beliefs and assumptions. The term "flying saucer" has been around since the late 1940s, when a private pilot named Kevin Arnold reported seeing something fitting that description in the skies over Mount Rainier in Washington state. The moniker stuck because it seems to aptly describe what so many people since then have described seeing in the night sky. UFO sightings often involve a disk-shaped object in the sky, sometimes with lights or doors or other hardware that suggest the object opens to allow for entry and exit. But of what or whom?

...

Could the UFO crafts be the aliens? Why not? I think it's interesting that we assume the objects we see in the sky and admit are "unidentified" are nevertheless assumed to be the vehicle and not the being itself. How would we know?

Some more far-out hypotheses suggest these crafts are some manifestation of ourselves (humans) from the future visiting current reality. .... perhaps these UFOs are programs that are briefly rendered real (as in taking on physical form) as they dip into our "reality" almost like a 3D-printed object, which begins as an idea and takes form as it's "printed."

(Excerpt) Read more at psychologytoday.com ...


TOPICS: UFO's
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To: frog in a pot

Nomad. VGER.


61 posted on 07/14/2026 1:02:19 PM PDT by Fledermaus (United States of America : Born July 4, 1776. Died June 30, 2026.)
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To: Jeff Chandler

“In space no one can hear you scream.”

Alien 1979

from the Google AI:

“Copywriter Barbara Gips wrote the famous tagline “In space no one can hear you scream” for the 1979 science-fiction horror film Alien. She came up with the legendary eight-word phrase while washing dishes to help market the movie.”


62 posted on 07/14/2026 1:07:46 PM PDT by woodbutcher1963
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To: Crusher138

People always assume “we” don’t have anything that can do what it’s doing. That “we” know of.

People used to report weird maneuvers from strange looking craft “we” couldn’t have. It was the Stealth Fighter test flights using computers as pilots to test ability in the design.


63 posted on 07/14/2026 1:08:33 PM PDT by Fledermaus (United States of America : Born July 4, 1776. Died June 30, 2026.)
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To: spankalib
Fair warning, FRiend - I’m definitely stealing that! :))

Wish I could take credit, but I'm pretty sure I stole it from somewhere, so steal away. It's true!

64 posted on 07/14/2026 1:17:11 PM PDT by dware (Americans prefer peaceful slavery over dangerous freedom)
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To: Fledermaus
Nomad. VGER.

There is that - the possibilities seem endless.

Perhaps an exploratory drone programed to seek out "live" planets and report home immediately any findings. One that if "caught" would disclose its record of findings, lend itself to carbon dating and test off the charts.

65 posted on 07/14/2026 1:43:39 PM PDT by frog in a pot (They can be a R or a D, the question is whether they are MAGA! That is the only line in the sand.)
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To: Battlestar

The physics of the energy needed to get to here from another galaxy or even from inside our galaxy is so large, it is impossible.


66 posted on 07/14/2026 1:44:03 PM PDT by mfish13 ( )
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To: All
As Anna Paulina Luna says, read the Book of Enoch I.

Maybe she's right or maybe she's wrong.

But this is a hypothesis worth considering.

67 posted on 07/14/2026 3:59:29 PM PDT by RoosterRedux
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To: All

Atheist Stephen Hawking believed that intelligent alien life almost certainly exists.

However, he strongly warned humanity against actively trying to make contact or broadcast signals into space.

He famously cautioned that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations might be “nomadic conquerors” looking to plunder Earth for its resources.

He compared a potential encounter to Christopher Columbus arriving in the Americas.


68 posted on 07/14/2026 4:44:19 PM PDT by Liz (“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies the work of His hands." (Psalm 19:1))
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To: Jamestown1630

Some of these stories go way, way back.

So do Vampire stories.

Keep a cross and garlic handy


69 posted on 07/15/2026 5:06:01 AM PDT by Vaduz (NEVER TRUST A DEMOCRAT)
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To: Fledermaus

It went from cruising along at maybe 30 MPH to a parabolic upward escape in a fraction of a second.

Unless there is some sort of dampening field in play, any biologics would have been turned to jelly by the g-forces.


70 posted on 07/15/2026 8:24:52 AM PDT by Crusher138 ("Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just")
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To: Liz
The Numbers: The Milky Way alone contains hundreds of billions of stars, many of which are older than our Sun and harbor Earth-like planets in their habitable zones.

Given enough time, a space-faring civilization could colonize the entire galaxy within just a few million years—a mere blink of an eye in cosmic history.

Wow. No wonder you're anti-Israel. You think the Hebrew Bible is mythology.

I take it all those "indigenous" chrstians the Israelis are "oppressing" believe likewise?

71 posted on 07/15/2026 9:36:15 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ)
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To: Zionist Conspirator

Stupid America hater——get off this site.

No one wants hate-filled posters here.


72 posted on 07/15/2026 11:21:59 AM PDT by Liz (“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies the work of His hands." (Psalm 19:1))
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To: Battlestar
So sick of this UFO hype. Been interested in UFOs, aliens, etc my whole life BUT have never seen one shred of evidence that indicates they are actually from another planet. In almost every case they can easily be explained as bad photography, shutter issues, known aircraft that appear different due to camera distortion/speed, known electrical atmospheric phenomena, secret test aircraft, outright hallucinations, mental illness, or just plain old lies to get attention, etc.

Exactly. UFOs certainly exist - there are flying objects that people can't identify. That's not evidence of aliens, it's evidence of people not knowing what they're looking at. The "legitimate" cases are probably Skunkworks experimental aircraft, the rest are hoaxes, tall tales, and people misinterpreting something completely mundane like meteors, weather balloons, etc.

Those who take alien spacecraft visiting Earth seriously are in the same category as those obsessed with finding Bigfoot/Sasquatch or seeing the Mothman. You can try pointing out to them that even if you built a spacecraft that could approach the speed of light, it would take centuries to get from our solar system to those that might have habitable planets, but it does no good. As with the Sasquatch "I believe" crowd, these things fill some kind of emotional need for many people.

73 posted on 07/15/2026 12:04:53 PM PDT by ek_hornbeck
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To: BenLurkin

“...when a private pilot named Kevin Arnold reported...”

Ummm...who?


74 posted on 07/16/2026 9:09:39 AM PDT by Ignatz ("Look, if I offend anybody today, I don't care." -Tom Homan)
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To: Ignatz; All

Nice catch. I skimmed right over that. Should be Kenneth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Arnold_UFO_sighting


75 posted on 07/16/2026 9:11:25 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: Ignatz
“...when a private pilot named Kevin Arnold reported...” Ummm...who?


76 posted on 07/16/2026 9:16:06 AM PDT by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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